Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship Part II – Reflections (29)

 

“But the older this world grows, and the more sharply the struggle between Christ and Antichrist grows, the more thorough also becomes the world’s efforts to rid itself of the Christians. To the first Christians the world still granted a space in which they were able to feed and clothe themselves from the fruits of their own labor. A world that has become entirely anti-Christian, however, can no longer grant Christians even this private sphere in which they pursue their professional work and earn their daily bread…In the end, Christians are thus left with no other choices but to escape from the world or to go to prison” (page 229).

 

Bonhoeffer writes as darkness descends over Germany, as he sees the church in Germany being swallowed up by the forces of nationalism, as pastors and their congregations capitulate to the demands of the state, aligning themselves with state agendas and abandoning Christ. Christianity and patriotism are becoming one in Germany. This is not the first time this has happened, religion has been used by the state throughout history to help the state achieve its ends, and the myth of Christian nationalism is a powerful seductive tool in both the East and the West. Democracies and totalitarian regimes both use the myth, constructing narratives which professing Christians accept and endorse, leading them away from Christ.

 

Bonhoeffer has forgotten that early Christians were not always able to work to support themselves. In some regions in ancient Rome Christians who belonged to trade guilds, which we might think of as union shops, were expelled from the guilds for refusing to pay homage to the guilds’ patron idols. If you were not a member of a guild you could not engage in that particular trade. Then we have the notable widespread persecution under the Emperor Decius (250 A.D.) in which everyone was required to offer an incense sacrifice to Roman gods in the presence of a magistrate, for which they received a certificate indicating their compliance with the edict. Those who refused were persecuted. Persecutions were often local, sometimes regional, and sometimes (as with Decius) they were across the Empire.

 

In our own day, earning a living as a faithful Christian can be difficult, there are professions and contexts in which Christians are marginalized, and countries in which being a Christian can mean the loss of employment and prison.

 

Whether in “open” or “closed” nations, if there is no conflict between the visible church – community and the world, it means that the visible church – community is abrogating its witness to Christ, for if we are faithful to Jesus Christ there will be conflict and persecution; the servant is not greater than his Master (John 15:18 – 16:4).

 

(When we engage in “marketplace ministry in the United States, are we equipping Christians with Biblical teaching on the Cross, obedience, and suffering for Christ?)

 

 “But the older this world grows, and the more sharply the struggle between Christ and Antichrist grows, the more thorough also becomes the world’s efforts to rid itself of the Christians.”

 

There are two ways to control others, one is through pain and the other is through pleasure. The first is straightforward, “If you don’t do what I want I will inflict pain on you.” In the West this pain may be the loss of employment, denied promotion, the withholding of an academic degree, ostracism, or legal penalties.  

 

The second can be subtle. The pleasure can be in the form of money, promotion, accolades, acceptance, perquisites, entertainment, and good food and drink. It can be open doors leading to proximity to power – the power can be corporate, academic, religious, political…proximity to power can be intoxicating and few people can resist its seduction.

 

Seduction is a greater threat to us in the West than pain. Once we have been seduced by pleasure, our resistance to pain crumbles, we are trapped in the good life, in the American Dream, and the professing church has descended into Babylon. The Cross then becomes an offense to us, even as it is to the world.

 

“Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and seducers will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:12 – 13).

 

Bonhoeffer adopts the Biblical teaching of two trajectories, that of those faithful to Christ and that of those under the domain of Antichrist. The visible – church community will overcome and prevail, the Stone cut without hands will indeed fill the entire earth, bringing an end to the kingdoms of this world. A tragedy is that those faithful to Christ not only face opposition from the world, but from a church that is falling away from the Lord Jesus.

 

“But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1).

 

“Let no one in any way deceive you, for it [the Day of the Lord] will not come unless the apostasy comes first” (2 Thess. 2:3).

 

Here is the thing dear friends, apostasy need not mean the explicit verbal denial of Jesus Christ and the Bible, apostasy can be syncretistic, it can be a blend of Christ and nationalism, Christ and economics, Christ and politics, Christ and a social agenda, Christ and materialism, Christ and religious success.

 

Which is the greater danger to the average professing Christian, a teaching which explicitly denies Jesus Christ and the Bible, or a teaching and movement which blends other elements into Christ and the Bible and thereby seduces our hearts away from Jesus? Which is the greater danger, a movement which appears evil, or one which appears good?

 

If a pastor would not (let us hope) take his people to a brothel, why would he take his people into teachings and movements which draw their hearts away from Jesus Christ?

 

Again, the chapter title is The Visible Church – Community. Bonhoeffer is saying that we must have our own space, for we, as the Body of Christ, are distinct from the world. We are to live and breathe in Christ, we are to be joined to one another in His Body. We are not to be subsumed and enveloped and find our identity in politics, economics, nationalism, materialism, hedonistic pleasure, racial identity, or even in religious tradition – we belong to Jesus and to Jesus alone, He is our Husband we are His Bride (2 Cor. 11:2  -3) and nothing is to come between Jesus and His Bride, nothing.

 

“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you” (Isaiah 60:1 – 2).

 

“Who will separate us form the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:35 – 39).

The Holy of Holies (1)

 

 

This post is number 156 in our reflections on the Upper Room (John chapters 13 – 17). The first reflection was posted on June 24, 2023, now we are in 2026. By God’s grace, these posts contain around 140,000 words, all, I hope, focused on Jesus Christ; all, I hope, seeking to reveal His amazing love and grace for you, for us.

 

I still recall sitting at our computer in 2023 and wanting to write about John 17, a passage at the core of my heart, mind, and soul; a passage which has been capturing my life for decades, a passage which has been drawing me into the koinonia of the Trinity; a passage which has made me know that such koinonia is about “us,” not just about me; it can never be just about me.

 

I also recall the realization that I could not write about John 17, the Holy of Holies, without taking us on the journey to the Holy of Holies, from the Outer Court with its laver for washing, into the Holy Place, and then into the Holy of Holies.

 

I began with that first post, An Inclusio of Identity, which contains this paragraph:

 

If we fully enter into the Upper Room we will find ourselves before the foundation of the world, in the Incarnation, and in the transcendence of koinonia with the Triune God. We will see the unfolding of John12:24, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

 

Jesus took His disciples through John chapters 13 – 16 before He could lead them into Chapter 17, I could do no less.

 

Knowing that “unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it,” I’ve sought to submit myself to the Holy Spirit and the Word as we’ve been on pilgrimage. I’ve also endeavored to “take the adventure that Aslan gives us,” keeping in mind that “those who are being led by the Spirit of God are the sons and daughters of God.”

 

As Jesus draws us into the Holy of Holies, let us keep in mind that the veil is no more.

 

“And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:51; see also Hebrews 9:1 – 14; 10:19 – 23). You and I now have a “new and living Way” in koinonia with our God, it is time for us to come Home, the Door is open.

 

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:20 – 21).

 

As we saw in our previous reflection, Jesus prays for you, He prays for me, He prays for us…Jesus is always praying for us (Hebrews 7:25).

 

What does Jesus pray for us?

 

That we may all be one even as He and the Father are one.

 

“That they may all be one” (17:21).

 

“That they may be one, just as We are one” (17:22).

 

“That they may be perfected into one” (17:23).

 

Let us read these words of Jesus to the Father over and over again, allowing them to sink deep into our souls, our hearts, our minds. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to create a vision of these words in our innermost beings. Let us allow the roots of these words to penetrate the essence of our who we are, forming us into the image of this Word, drawing us together in Christ into the Trinity.

 

Behold the beauty of “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one.” This is a transforming beauty, a beauty that, once seen, can never be forgotten (let us hope). This is a beauty worth selling everything to purchase, a beauty worth a man's or a woman’s life.

 

This is a beauty that dwarfs our little religious fiefdoms, our parochial territories and attitudes, our doctrinal distinctives, our insistence on ownership of our religious franchises. This beauty is about more than “Jesus and me,” it is about more than “Jesus and our group,” it is about Jesus and us His Body, and then it is about us in the Us of John 17:21; that our “us” may be in the “Us” of the Trinity – “that they may be in Us.”

 

We are to love one another just as Jesus loves us (John 13:34 – 35; 15:12 – 13). The Nature of our love for one another is to be the Nature of Jesus’ love for us, divinely cruciform. We are to live in unity, in oneness, just as the Trinity is One, the Nature of our unity is the Nature of the Trinity. We must desire no less, we must preach no less, we must live (by His grace) in no less than the Nature of God.

 

Let us note that there are two testimonies, two elements of witness, that are the result of our Oneness in the Trinity. The first is that the world may know that the Father sent the Son (John 17:21, 23), the second is that the world may know that the Father loves us as He loves Jesus (17:23)..

 

In other words, as the Father loves the Only Begotten Son, so the Father loves the corporate Son; as the Father loves the Head, so the Father loves the Body; but of course they are One.

 

How foolish we are to think that we can circumvent the prayer of Christ Jesus, that we can relegate it to the impractical, that we can find a method for witness that bypasses the heart of the Father, that we can impose our standards of acceptance on others, that we have warrant to build our own houses while the House of God lies desolate (Haggai 1:9).

 

We are also foolish to think that we can organize and create the Oneness for which Jesus prays. Let us be clear about this, only the work of the Holy Spirit and submission to the Word of God can fulfill the prayer of Jesus. “Except the LORD build the House, they labor in vain who build it” (Psalm 127).

 

As we as individuals experience the koinonia of the Trinity, it ignites a flame on the altar of our hearts that all our brothers and sisters may know this glorious fellowship, this sweet communion, our prayers rising to the heavenly altar as sweet incense to the Triune God. Our lives are transformed into a holocaust, an offering, on behalf of the Lamb for His People. As John writes, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16).

 

Perhaps my 5^th great grandfather, Patrick Henry, expressed (on a lower level) what our attitude should be when he participated in the First Continental Congress. Henry said, “I am not a Virginian, but an American.”

 

We must be more than Baptists, more than Roman Catholics, more than Presbyterians, more than Lutherans; more than Reformed or Arminian or Pentecostal or Anglican; we must be first and foremost, first and last, Christians…followers of Jesus Christ…seeking to obtain and preserve “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3).

 

Must this not begin in my own heart and life?

 

Must this not begin from congregation to congregation in our respective locations?  

 

Must this not begin in pastor-to-pastor local relationships?

 

To think that Jesus is making the Name of the Father known to us, so that the “love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26).

 

Isn’t this worth living for?